A final chapter on miscellaneous effects of pressure comprises a number of topics, some of them worthy of a whole hook t o themselves. For example, mineral synthesis under pressure, a very live subject just now, is discussed in one page. However, excellent references indicate t o the interested reader where he can find an expanded treatment of the mbject. This illustrates another pleasing feature of this boak, the wealth of goad references. Some 582 general references are given and a cursory glance indicates that they are well ohosen and could indeed provide the student with a reliable key to the whole field of pressure physics and chemistry. This hook may he recommended without reservation t o s. variety of readers: to research workers investigating phenomena under high pressures who will find it a handy reference boak and pcssihly learn something new about work in areas remote from their o m direct interest, to academic men working in physical chemistry or teaching advanced courses who will find it of general interest and the source of several interesting lectures or seminars, to graduate students proceeding on t o work in physical chemistry who will find i t stimulating and full of puggestions for their work, t o students and practitioners of chemical engineering who will find the hook a mine of information and the source of many interesting leads to applications in technology.
The eight sections of the hook are: I. Direct Observations of Dislocations (8 papers); 11. Deformation of Pure Single Crystals (6 papers); 111. Work Hardening and Recovery (6 papers); IV. Alloy Crystals, Impurities, Yield Point Phenomena (6 papers); V. Did* cation Damping and Fatigue (3 papers); VI. Theory of Dislocations (4 papers); VII. Whiskers and Thin Crystals (4 papers); VIII. Radiation Damage (5 papers). Every teacher of physical chemistry should a t least scan this book and i t should certainly be avsilable and used in every library purporting to cover physical sciences and engineering. A more definitive and coherent hook will no doubt he forthcoming, hut this one will be the prime source for many years.
E F. Coldin, University of Leads. Oxford University Press, New York, 1958. rp 424 pp. 79 figs. 14.5 X 22 om. 58.
Ross, University of London. University Press, Cambridge, 1957. ix 524 pp. 14 X 22 cm. $13.50.
R. E. GIBSON
INTHE preface, tho author states that his aim has been to write a hook that a student can work through far himself. Because this aim is a very difficult one to realize, it is hardly surprising that the author has not heon entirely successful. One place where he fails is in his rather disappointing discussion of electrode potentials, in which he says, in a footnote on page 256, that he uses the American eonvention-without saying what that convention is. I n fact, no general agree ment on what the American oonvention is exists. Another failure in this aim occurs in the introduction of free energy functions by merely defining them without giving m y preliminary explrtnation of the need for them. Also the general differential equations for free energy are given without including the net reversible work term. Far example, the complete equation for d F (the author uses dG) should be
FORover five years now, since the publication of Volume 3 of the second edition of "The Terpenes" in 1952 [reviewed by T. L. Jacobs in THIS JOURNAL, 30, 215 (1953)1, organic chemists, biochemists, pharmacologists, and others everywhere who are interested in the chemistry of natural products have eagerly awaited the appearance of this new volume and its companion in this invaluable and authoritative series which presents a complete, detailed, systematic survey of the chemistry of the terpenes, their derivatives, and related transfamxtion products. The acyclic and the simpler monocyclic monoterpenes were covered in Volume 1, the bicyclio monoterpenes in Volume 2, and the sesquiterpenes and the diterpenes in Volume 3. I n the present volume a number of classes of the now increasingly important triterpenes are considered, including hydrocarbon, alcohol, hydroxyaldehyde, ketone, and hydroxy-ketone representatives, such as squalene, ambrien, lanosterol, a- and 0-amyrin, hetulin, lupeol, friedelin, and cerin. Introducing the more general reader to the w s t and complex field of triterpene chemistry, the authors have prepared a skillfully written introduction summarieing the occurrence, methods of isolation, early chemical studies and structural speculations, present major classifications, and key biogenetie interrelationships of the triterpenes. Then, as with the previous volumes, the emphasis in the subsequent chapters lies primarily with the presentation of experimental evidence which has been adduced t o establish detail8 af struoture and stcreochemistry. Inasmuch as copious references t o the occurrence and isolation of each natural triterpene are d m included, this work
THEJ a m s H o ~ ~ r Us ~s m ~ n s r r r BALTIMORE. KARTLAND
DISLOCATIONS AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF CRYSTALS Edited by John C. Fisher, General Electric Research Laboratory, Schenectady, New York; W. G. Johnston, General Eledric; R. Thompson, University of Illinois; and T. Vreelond, Jr., California Institute of Technology. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1957. xiv 634 pp. 16 X 23.5 cm. $15.
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THIS is a superbly illustrated book which collects for the first time contributions from most of the researchers in the forefront of the field described by its title. It is a collection of the papers delivered a t an international conference held a t Lake Placid, September 6-8, 1956, and sponsored by the .4ir Force Office of Scientific Research, Air Research and Development Command, and the General Electric Research Laboratory. It suffers from many faults of such collections. The style is not uniform, and the typographical errors are many (but no serious ones were noted). Time will prove some of the results reported more valid than others, and the papers assume a rather high level of familiarity and competence in the field on the part of the readers. Its value t o the student and general reader interested in learning shout crystals could have been greatly enhanced hy a short glossary. Yet, in spite of these shortcomings, the editors and contributors have produced a. timely and enlightening hook.
I. A. CAMPBELL HARVEY Muon C o ~ ~ e o e C'*REMOIT. C*I.,POBN,*
Irreversible path Work done by system numerically less than maximum.
Although this reviewer does not agree with such a statement of the Second Law, i t does stress t o the student that a spontaneous change, theoretically, may he carried out either reversibly or irreversibly. Bnyone looking for a textbook for a first courae in thermodynamics should examine this book. W. F. LUDER NOBTHEABTERN UNIYERBITY Bosron. M ~ s s ~ c x o s ~ ~ ~ s
The late Sir John Simonsen and W. C. J.
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Reversible path Work done by s y e tem, numerically a max~mum.
THE TERPENES. VOLUME 4: THE TRITERPENES AND THEIR DERIVATIVES
AN INTRODUCTION TO CHEMICAL THERMODYNAMICS
dF
Spontaneous change i n a system Can he made to do work on surroundings, and reversed only by supplying work from surroundings.
- SdT + udp - Dw,'
Of course these two failures in clarity are common to many discussions of thermodynamics, hut one may be disappointed to find them in this book after reading the author's aim as stated in the preface. Nevertheless, perhaps because the author really has tried to write a hook that a student can work through for himself, most of it does seem to be more clearly written than many similar books. For example, some books seem to he confused in their use of the terms spontaneous change and Greversible process, treating them as if they were synonymous. This hook states clearly the relationship b e tween them (although the word path is actually used in place of process). In fact, the Second Law is stated in terms of this relationship, on page 133:
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(Continued a page A.96464)
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
